Archive for August 12, 2012

“See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the Curve…” Your Full of Shit and I’ll tell you Why: Volume Three

Posted in Articles on August 12, 2012 by oldcountrystrong


So far Z has looked at Joker and Bane in discussing why he feels The Dark Knight is the supeior movie to the The Dark Knight Rises. Rather than rehash those arguments again, I decided to look at the remainder of the movies sans those characters to see if the argument still holds firm.


Rises ends the trilogy by combining a couple of Batman stories (Knightfall, No Mans Land, The Dark Knight Returns) in a pot to get a plot where the League of Shadows to destroy Gotham with a neutron bomb. It is a very superhero movie based plot and unfortunately that is a mark when comparing it to TDK. Batman is always been one of the most successful comic book heroes because he has no powers, his storyline plots can be more down to Earth than others. He doesn’t need the threat level go that far out of the box. The threats in TDK where more real. Example, Bane after exploding what feels like 20% of Gotham threatens to set off the super nuclear bomb,  Joker threatens to blow up a hospital (which he does). It is the intimacy of the threat which helps drive TDK along. Rises up all the stakes but loses part of the connection that TDK had with the realism factor of the plot…for a comic book movie.

Action scenes

In the beginning of Rises, we are introduced to Bane in the form of a pretty cool air kidnap/resecue mission. It is gives us a bunch of cool lines from Bane to show us he means business. I liked it and I like it even more I saw it a second time.  It works…because Nolan had already done it TDK in introducing the Joker. It is a draw. Both movies have car chases scenes but this one ain’t close, the Gotham Stock Market chase scene/dump truck scenese are even close to the Harvey Dent trasnportation scene. Rises does have some awesome fight scenes between Batman and Bane which we didn’t get in TDK because well the Joker is just a pyschopth with knives. Both movies do have other collected action scenes in them but TDK Hong Kong and SWAT team assault scenes are just more Batmanesque. Even with Bane’s fight scenes, TDK just feels more complete.

Acting (outside the Big Bads)

Batman: Christian Bale sounds like he needs a cough drop playing Batman, same as always. He  is the Batman, but the rest of the cast are more memorable. Sorry.

Jim Gordon: While he doesn’t have as many juicy lines in Rises Gary Oldman actually does a better job acting, showing how the moral compass of the TDK was torn apart by keeping Harvey’s secret. Edge: Rises.

Lucius Fox: Morgan Freeman is pretty good in both but it really feels like he going through the motions in Rises. In TDK he dealt with his conscious over the giant Bat phone radar he built, in Rises he is just Joe Fix It. Edge: TDK.

Alfred: Michael Caine gets to cry in Rises, but I like his more distinct and memorable monologues in TDK better.

Girlfriend: Almost anyone would have been better than Maggie Glyenhall’s character in TDK. Didn’t like her at all. I really liked Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. Edge: Rises.

Secondary Big Bad: SPOILER ALERT.

The true power behind by Bane is Miranda Tate aka Talia Ah Ghul (this was so blatant in the movie to fans of the comics the big reveal did nothing for me). Talia in the comics is a hotter than hell assassin who loves Batman, an Angeline Jolie type not Marion Cotillard. She did nothing for me in the entire movie. But in the TDK we get Harvey “Two Face” Dent. Harvey starts off as the white knight, suffers loss, and in the end becomes a villain. Harvey’s rise and fall showcases something that is missing in Rises, human development. Big Edge: TDK.

Quotes (The Deal Breaker you may ask)

Taking out the quotes from Bane and the Joker and you lose a lot of the best quotes in both movies, sad but true. And the movie is still only a few months old, but I have seen Rises twice and TDK lines are better past by the bad guys. Remember it’s not about what right or wrong, it’s about whats fair.

So looking at without Bane or Joker in the movie, it is a real close one but TDK is the slightly better film. But you throw an Oscar winning performance by Heath Ledger in there, Z is right TDK is the better film. The trilogy in my opinion is the original Star Wars Return of the Jedi is an amazing film and better than the first one but we all know that Empire was the best and so is The Dark Knight (second best comic book movie ever me and Z are going to have words about).

A Nickay and Z Joint